Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experimentation Program

Between 1935 and 1945, a covert Japanese military research unit conducted some of the most horrific medical experiments in history on living human beings - and the United States government helped cover it up. Unit 731, officially called the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department," was actually a biological and chemical warfare research facility that used Chinese civilians, prisoners of war, and "test subjects" (called "logs") for grotesque experiments that make Nazi medical crimes look restrained by comparison. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people died in agony, and the perpetrators were never prosecuted.

The experiments were nightmarish. Researchers performed vivisections without anesthesia to see how organs functioned while patients scre ...